Category Archives: Life

Changing Seasons

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And just like that, as quickly as the leaves are changing colours here in Victoria, the fall sailing season is over.  That’s it; no more cooking for me.  It is kind of strange to think about really.  All I’ve done for the last two years is cook on a sailboat.  Now I’m done.  Two weeks of shipyard and then I’m really done and unemployed.

Its been a fantastic last two years, I’ve throughly enjoyed my time on the boat: the people I’ve met, the people I’ve worked with, and the places I’ve been very fortunate to travel to both at home and abroad.  Soon I’ll be on to the next chapter.

It has arrived

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After a false start last weekend, moving day has arrived.  Today my new roommate is showing up with her parent’s truck to help shift everything over there.  Fortunately for me, its only about 10 or 15 min driving down the road.  It is raining… should I be surprised after the week of rain we’ve had?  No, not really, but I was hoping.

Worlds Away

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I may be only about ten years older than the majority of high school students right now, but I feel generations apart.  Has being a teenager changed that dramatically in the last decade or am I just an exceptional person who was immune to many of the things that teenagers do?  I feel like it is the former.  I hope that this is not a product of some vain sense of superiority on my part, but I don’t think so.

Most of the young people I’ve been interacting with over the last few months seem to be from an elite privileged group.  I even notice it on the bus to and from downtown; they talk loudly on their cell phones and to each other as they listen to iPods and flaunt the latest in designer fashion.  They talk about how they “like just have to” get the newest this or that or how so-and-so is “like so” this or that…  They seem to think they know everything about this celebrity or that band but are clueless as to the more important things in life.  Like how to boil water. Seriously, I’ve been asked.  Some have been everywhere at mommy or daddy’s expense but haven’t experienced anything other than the shopping and five star hotels in those places.  Others haven’t been outside of their city but are equally clueless about life.  The world we live in today is such a global village that to be uninformed about life outside of your small bubble seems a crime.  We live in a period when we have the unique ability to go anywhere and do anything.  Why squander it with ignorance?
One of the most frequent things I hear on the boat is “this is the best food I’ve ever eaten” or “you are an amazing cook,” and sometimes “will you come home with me and cook all the time, I never eat like this at home.”  Again, ego would suggest otherwise, but I really don’t think I am that incredible or the food I make is that wonderfully unique.  I just make things like what I grew up on: random bits of pork cooked with a glaze, potatoes, spaghetti, pasta casseroles, rice dishes…  Part of it is the outdoor environment.  Everyone is hungrier when they spend all day outside and when you are hungry, anything tastes good.  I have another theory about why everyone thinks boat food is so good.  I think it has to do with the food they are accustomed to eating.  (This also goes back to the “How do you boil water?” comment.)  Many of them come from busy working families where parents just don’t have the time to cook a real meal.  This generation has grown up on instant.  Not only do they want everything now, they are not used to anything that cannot be microwaved in less than ten minutes.  No wonder boat food tastes good!  When you are used to over-processed, reheated food, anything made with real fresh ingredients tastes good.  It is saddening to think of what people are missing.
None of this is meant as a broad-brush generalization, painting in all of the young people in our society.  I just feel that it is an overwhelming majority of those with whom I have observed in recent months since returning home from Offshore.  I hope it is just a case of the squeaky wheel being the one taken note of.
Does a rant like this officially classify me as “old fart”?

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Um, so I’m moving again on the weekend. New address email went out tonight, but, once again, if I’ve missed you, let me know and I’ll send you an email.

Good Friends

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I’ve been in Prince George for only a day and a half and already its been fantastic to see so many friends.  Church yesterday was overwhelming with the number of people I knew still; it always was such a caring community to be a part of and this was emphasized even more coming back to it for the first time in a few years.  I have some great friends.  It is so good to share and catch up on life over the past little while and just enjoy great conversations.  I guess that is one of the great things about good friends – you can always catch up where you left off and are always so happy to see each other that it doesn’t seem like years have gone by.

Epiphanies

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Today I have come to the realization that I am actually moving back to Victoria really soon! I am quite excited to be back in one of my favourite cities in the world spending time with all the friends I’ve made there over the last four years. With that realization, however, came a certain amount of dread. I hate moving. I hate having all of my things packed into boxes and freaking out about fitting them all into Dad’s car that I get to borrow for the day. I hate the fact that I don’t have any furniture and need to buy some. Correction, I have a desk that I am unsure if it will fit into the car with four totes, an assorted number of bags and boxes, an ironing board, and a guitar.

Included in today’s epiphany was yesterday’s visit to Ikea, the everything wonderstore. Ikea is dangerous. I went in to look at beds and came out in love with a new duvet. And two cutting boards for 99 cents. The wonderful thing about Ikea is everything comes in little packages that fit into little places like a stuffed car. Even the mattress is tiny when rolled tightly. The less wonderful thing about little packages is the inevitable putting together process that ends with cursing Swedish instructions and microscopic pictures.

I haven’t bought the bed yet. I’m still trying to work out if I want to spend $200 on a bed. This from the girl who spent $100 on two pairs of shoes. Go figure. I’ll probably go back and get it next week because, lets face it, I won’t find one cheaper than that and it is pretty much what I want (except for the amazingly 70’s but still cool green queen. But that is another story.)

Things are slowly coming together. I’m looking forward to not living out of boxes and borrowed space.

Confessions

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I think I’m a shoe-a-holic. Half of you are doubled over laughing and shaking your heads right now as you wonder at me only just figuring this out. It is not that I have only figured it out, its just that now I am admitting it to a larger audience. I like shoes.

When in Montreal a couple of weeks ago, I was walking along Rue Ste Catherine not wanting to shop when I fell in love with a dress. It was on sale, it was cute, and it had lots of green on it. What more could I want? Those of you in Edmonton for Carlynne’s wedding will even get to see it.

New cute dress called for cute sandals to wear with it. No clunky Birks (as much as I love them dearly) and no rubber Haviannas for me; after a year on a boat, my cute sandal collection is fairly slim: of the three or four I have, all but one definitely do not go. The sole remaining sandals have painful memories of uncomfortable feet and that was when my feet were used to heels and narrow sandals. My feet are very boat acclimatized now after a year of bare feet and flip flops and don’t fit shoes the same way they once did.
Shoe shopping I must go! I had in my head exactly what I wanted: low heel with none of that platform thing going on, open toe, but semi-enclosed sides with a strap around the heel. Ideally, the shoe would be in a fantastic shade of green, but that is negotiable. Everyone, especially me, should have a good pair of green shoes. What else would a girl wear with all her green clothing? Maybe that is just me.
Unfortunately, no one in the shoe making industry seems to agree with my green shoe sentiments. But I did find a wonderful sandal by one of my favourite shoe designers. I say a sandal because I found it at Winners and could only find one of the pair. After a very in depth search on my part, I had found another wonderful single shoe, but no sandal for me. Until, finally, I was triumphant on both accounts! I am now the proud owner of two new pairs of shoes. Don’t judge me.

Why we should all use tin cans with long strings

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I arrived home from Offshore to an old cell phone and a company #1 pay-as-you-go account.  After a month on pay-as-you-go while scouting my options, I decided that the best plan for me was to switch to company #2.  It was a hard decision because I like some of the perks that come with #1, but #2 was going to be more cost effective and possibly less of a hassle in the long run.

Today I went and did the switching because my pay-as-you-go expires tomorrow, so I’d be phone-less regardless.  Switching it over was easy, I had no hassles and I walked out of the store 15 min later with the new phone.  I admit, there were some regrets.  I like my old phone.  Its not a flip or a slide, and it doesn’t have any of those fancy features that new phones have.  It is about 4 years old, mind you, and I’m not entirely confident in its ability to ring if I have an incoming call, but they don’t offer no-flip/slide phones much anymore (unless I want to pay big bucks for a blackberry) and thats all I’ve ever had.  Switching also meant leaving the only wireless company I’ve ever been with in Canada, which has to mean something.
It was the transferring of the number from old to new which gave me the first inkling that this was a good idea.  First, the serial number on old phone was wrong, then the account number I had was incorrect.  After a few very helpful calls to company #2, the new one, I needed to call company #1.  I hate calling company #1.  They have one of those voice automatic systems where you get this annoying non-person saying “Hi, I’m Melanie, and I’m here to help you…”  If there is any background noise at all, “she” registers that, not your voice meaning the conversation goes something like this:
“I want Account Options”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.  Do you want to add money to your account today?”
“NO”
“Okay, what can I help you with today?”
“Person, I want to talk to a real person”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.  Do you want to add money to your account today?”
“NO.  Account Options”
“Did you say Account Options”
“Good Lord, Yes”
“Okay, Account Options.  For blah blah blah, say ‘blah blah blah or press 1…’…”
Ahhhh.  I just want to talk to a real person.
Finally, I got through to someone and they were less than impressed that I didn’t know my password.  I haven’t used the phone for a full year, I don’t remember my password.  “Do you want to take a guess at what it is?”  No, not really, do you know how many things I have passwords and PINs for?  Everyone says it is a good idea not to repeat PINs.  But, realistically in today’s electronic world, how many PINs can the average person remember?  I should, by all accounts, have hundreds of PINs.  I know I cannot remember all of those!
So after a rant about only wanting my account number because I can’t get it online and the phone information is wrong and I will give you any of the other information on my account but please give me the account number, he gave me the account number.
Account number in hand (and with it now saved for all time and eternity so I never have to call #1 again), I call up #2.  Two buttons pushed, and I have a real person.  He is very nice and in no time has everything working again.  Suddenly, I’m not regretting my switch to company #2, a company I had previously sworn off.  
All of this to say, I still have a cell phone and the number has not changed.  If you don’t remember what my old number was/is, drop me an email and I’ll send it because I’m not posting it online for obvious reasons.

Mattress…?

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A very important question for anyone who lives in, or near, Victoria:
Do you, or know anyone who might, have a bed or mattress that needs to be “stored” for a year in my bedroom?!?  I don’t have a bed and I’m moving back to Victoria in a couple weeks.  I really don’t want to buy something if I don’t have to, but equally don’t want to sleep on my thermarest for a year!  Thought I’d put it out there before I go ahead with any more drastic plans, like buying something.